After Buccaneers kicker Chase McLaughlin hit a 65-yard field goal and a 58-yard field goal on Sunday, Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio said the [new procedures allowing teams to break in kicking balls](https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/vic-fangio-new-kicking-ball-procedures-have-drastically-changed-field-goals) have made long field goals much easier. But Buccaneers coach Todd Bowles says it’s about the kicker, not the ball.
Bowles used a movie reference to explain why he thinks it’s the new generation of kickers, not the balls they’re kicking, that have made long field goals more common in the NFL.
“They’re coming out of college that way now,” Bowles said. “It used to be the 50-something yard kickers were almost like original Terminators. Now they got the T-2000s up now kicking 60- and 70-yarders. It seems to be the wave.”
(For the record, Bowles misremembers the Terminator movies. There were no T-2000s. The original Terminator, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, was a T-800 model. In _Terminator 2: Judgment Day,_ the T-1000 made of a liquid metal was introduced. A later sequel, _Terminator Genisys_, included a T-3000 and T-5000, and other Terminator models have appeared in other versions of the franchise. But there hasn’t been a T-2000.)
Bowles said he knows where Fangio is coming from with how hard it is to force an opposing team to punt anymore.
“They’re either going for it on fourth down or they’re kicking 65 or 70 yarders now,” Bowles said. “As a defensive coach you have that problem in the league now.”
But if you’re a coach like Bowles, with a Terminator-like kicker on your own team, it’s a good problem to have.